Woolworths and Coles bank a combined $2.24bn in annual profit

By Elias Thorne · 2026-08-26

Two results, one number that will follow both chains into Senate estimates

Australia's two dominant supermarket chains filed their full-year results within a day of each other, and the combined arithmetic is the figure politicians will quote for the rest of the parliamentary term. Woolworths Group lifted net profit after tax by 18.1 per cent to 1.14 billion dollars for the 52 weeks to 28 June 2026,^[1] while Coles Group lifted underlying net profit after tax by nearly 14 per cent to 1.10 billion dollars for the 52 weeks to 29 June 2026.^[2] Set beside each other, those two lines produce a combined 2.24 billion dollars in annual earnings from chains that together account for the majority of Australian grocery spending.

Woolworths: sales momentum and collectables

Woolworths recorded full-year sales of 71.5 billion dollars, with management pointing to its lower-price investments and a Disney Ooshies collectables campaign as partial drivers of the sales lift.^[1] Chief executive Brad Banducci said the chain had delivered a strong finish to the year, with momentum right across the business and customers continuing to respond to value and convenience investments exactly as anticipated.^[1]

The collectables detail will attract scrutiny from consumer advocates, who have long argued that loyalty mechanics built around children's campaigns lift basket sizes in ways that complicate straight price comparisons. Woolworths has framed its Lower Shelf Price programme as a direct response to that criticism, though the profit line will make the framing harder to sustain in coming weeks.

Coles: a provision that rewrites the wage playbook

Coles' underlying result reads more cleanly than its statutory one. The chain recorded a 235 million dollar pre-tax charge for significant items in FY26, traceable directly to a Federal Court judgment handed down in September 2025 that found Coles had underpaid salaried managers under the General Retail Industry Award.^[3] That provision, first disclosed in the half-year accounts, flowed through to the full-year result in its entirety.

The 235 million dollar pre-tax provision relates to the Federal Court ruling on underpayments of salaried team members and is carried as a significant item in Coles' FY26 accounts.^[3] Employment lawyers and large retail and hospitality employers are watching the ruling for its implications across any industry where salaried staff regularly work hours that, annualised against a fixed salary, fall below award minimums. Chief executive Leah Weckert said the supermarkets business delivered resilient sales growth while disciplined cost management drove a double-digit lift in earnings despite the headwind from the underpayment provision.^[2] Coles also carried a Price Freeze commitment through the year, and full-year sales revenue reached 45.6 billion dollars.^[2]

The political context neither chain can price away

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's supermarkets inquiry, which reported in late 2023, called for greater transparency on supermarket margins and cited persistent concern over rising grocery prices.^[1] Both chains launched lower-price programmes in the aftermath, yet consumer groups and federal parliamentarians have continued pressing the question of whether profit growth at the duopoly level translates into savings at the checkout or simply compounds shareholder returns. Neither chief executive addressed that question directly in their published statements, and results week has placed it squarely on the parliamentary agenda ahead of the next Senate estimates round.

This article reports company disclosures for general information only and is not financial advice. Consider your own circumstances before making investment decisions.

Elias Thorne

Elias Thorne writes about interest rates, the bond market and the Reserve Bank. He is interested in what monetary policy actually does to household budgets, and in the long stretches of economic history that tend to repeat.